I saw that. I'm disappointed but understand. For a race that is put on by a hospital, now is not a good time.

Herbie Hancock wrote:

I saw that. I'm disappointed but understand. For a race that is put on by a hospital, now is not a good time.

If you are suggesting that St Anthony's made a management decision on their own to shift the race due to their concerns over athletes catching covid, that's not what happened. Due to high covid numbers in January (which BTW have fallen 24% in the past two weeks) possibly impacting the fan turnout, the St Pete Grand Prix was moved to the weekend previously scheduled for St Anthony's triathlon. I.e, the city pulled St Anthony's permit to make room for a much larger event likely to draw tens of thousands of people. So indirectly, the triathlon was a victim of covid, but not what people were thinking. Meanwhile, triathlons, cycling events, running races, and open water swim events will be happening all over Florida.

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/auto-racing/2021/01/06/firestone-grand-prix-of-st-petersburg-moving-to-april/

Dang first Corona now Formula Un messing up the triathlon season. What is next?

For an early race I’m switching my focus and registered for the Sebring 70.3 national champs (I think there is an Olympic distance too) that will be the following weekend (May 2) from when St Anthony’s was planned.

Not sure I can do the rescheduled race, as it would put me in 3 back to back weekends (St George, Chatty, St A).

Point of Order: the Sebring multisport festival is NOT the national champs. Further, USAT uses the term "long course" since they do not have legal rights to the 70.3 name. USAT is offering "additional" 2021 WC qualifying spots to the Sebring race (e.g., to Edmonton for the Oly, to Almere for the long course triathlon and aquabike) as a make-up for the MiamiMan cancellation, but championship titles are not being awarded. The USAT 2021-2022 National Long Course Championship was awarded to Toughman Stony Point, NY and serves as qualifiers to the 2022 and 2023 WCs in Townsend, Australia and Ibiza, Spain respectively.

That said, I would guess that Sebring is highly likely to happen. It will be more competitive than most indie half-iron races, but not as competitive as a typical USAT national championship since the bulk of athletes going to Almere were selected at the MiamiMan 2019 race and rolled over when Almere slipped from 2020 to 2021.

Best of luck at Sebring!!

I stand corrected - thank you for the clarification! Conflated the slots and champs.

Agreed on the likelihood of hosting - things in FL have been going off fairly well, at least from what I’ve seen. St Anthony’s reschedule seems to have been related to the Indy race rather than COVID directly.

I agree with HuffNPuff, this move was totally dictated by the city picking Formula One over Tri. I'm just puzzled by why they had to move it all the way until October. I can't think of a hotter time in Florida than early October. This race is going to be a scorcher.

We're just a few weeks out from St. Anthony's at this point, assuming all goes off as re-re-planned. Have a small group of ~10-15 folks that my wife and I have talked into signing up, some for their first tri. We live in Wesley Chapel, just north of Tampa, but got a hotel down in St Pete for the weekend - maybe we'll see some of you down there? Hopefully it takes place!

Canceled.

Organizers of the St. Anthony’s Triathlon have come to the very difficult decision to cancel this year’s race weekend which was scheduled for Oct. 1-3. This is the second time in two years that the surge of COVID-19 throughout the Tampa Bay area and the increase in hospitalizations has led to the cancellation of this nationally recognized race. The Triathlon depends on its team members and community partners – emergency medical services, firefighters and police -- to make the race weekend a success. As a health leader in the Tampa Bay area, St. Anthony’s does not feel that it would be responsible to further tax our team members and those community resources at this time. Our Triathlon team, which will have more information on registration, deferrals and refunds by Wednesday, Sept. 1, is determined to present a safe race in 2022. To do that, St. Anthony’s encourages everyone to get the COVID-19 vaccine. For more information, please click on this link: https://bddy.me/2Wwx8WX

Such a bummer. I did that race back in 2015. Still one of the most fun Olympics (other than Escape to Miami) that I've done.

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

I was keeping an eye on their Facebook feed the last few weeks and there were so many "get registered" posts that I was lured into a false sense of security on this race being held in 2021!

It’s one of my favorite races I do every year (well not since 2019 😞). I can’t say I’m surprised by this, but definitely disappointed.

After two years worth of cancelations, hopefully St. Anthony's will happen this year. I'm registered and looking forward to racing.